I guess the first thing you should know is that this is a Spike Lee film. The very name wards off a number of people; I'm not one of them. I don't get warded off of a film just because of the director (unless it's Uwe Boll).
The second thing you should know is that this is a good movie. You should know this up front because everything else I'm going to say is going to make it sound bad. But that's because of what the movie is.
Most movies have a single point. An underlying purpose that the writer/director/etc is trying to get across to the audience. Large films may have 2 points.
There's enough raw material in this film to be 3 separate 2-hour movies. The primary premise, a man being paid to impregnate a number of lesbians, is just the tip of the iceberg. You're going to see everything from racism to shadows of Enron; to Mafiosos; to prostitution (seen from a very strange angle); to a truly unexpected, extended homage to the security guard who caught the guys in the Watergate hotel. Subplots disappear for extended lengths in the film, only to be resurrected and dramatically change where the film is going.
It shouldn't hold up, and as a regular movie it doesn't. But this isn't a movie; what it is is about a year's worth of a man's life. Now, life doesn't work like a movie. People don't deal with just one singular issue inside a year. A year is filled with numerous issues, some that disappear for months only to return and really screw you over. And, for John 'Jack' Armstrong, this was a very unique year indeed.
If you look at it as one year's worth of interesting clippings from the incredible life of Jack Armstrong, it's a different film. This man is thrust into a whole bunch of crap that he has to deal with. Issues from his past come out, and he has to deal with them. It does still have a solid, overarching story arc that does get resolved in the end.
The main problem is that cinema really can't effectively do what Spike Lee is trying to do. Not in its 138 minute running time.
However, I think this film works best as a conversation starter. As a way to bring up numerous issues and sort of lay them all out there for people to start talking about. In some ways, it's effective in the direction that Se7en is (though not in nearly as strong a way), in showing you how apathetic society has become about various inequities, corruption, and so forth. With the exception of environmentalism, this film touches just about every societal issue to some degree.
The second thing you should know is that this is a good movie. You should know this up front because everything else I'm going to say is going to make it sound bad. But that's because of what the movie is.
Most movies have a single point. An underlying purpose that the writer/director/etc is trying to get across to the audience. Large films may have 2 points.
There's enough raw material in this film to be 3 separate 2-hour movies. The primary premise, a man being paid to impregnate a number of lesbians, is just the tip of the iceberg. You're going to see everything from racism to shadows of Enron; to Mafiosos; to prostitution (seen from a very strange angle); to a truly unexpected, extended homage to the security guard who caught the guys in the Watergate hotel. Subplots disappear for extended lengths in the film, only to be resurrected and dramatically change where the film is going.
It shouldn't hold up, and as a regular movie it doesn't. But this isn't a movie; what it is is about a year's worth of a man's life. Now, life doesn't work like a movie. People don't deal with just one singular issue inside a year. A year is filled with numerous issues, some that disappear for months only to return and really screw you over. And, for John 'Jack' Armstrong, this was a very unique year indeed.
If you look at it as one year's worth of interesting clippings from the incredible life of Jack Armstrong, it's a different film. This man is thrust into a whole bunch of crap that he has to deal with. Issues from his past come out, and he has to deal with them. It does still have a solid, overarching story arc that does get resolved in the end.
The main problem is that cinema really can't effectively do what Spike Lee is trying to do. Not in its 138 minute running time.
However, I think this film works best as a conversation starter. As a way to bring up numerous issues and sort of lay them all out there for people to start talking about. In some ways, it's effective in the direction that Se7en is (though not in nearly as strong a way), in showing you how apathetic society has become about various inequities, corruption, and so forth. With the exception of environmentalism, this film touches just about every societal issue to some degree.